This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with James Hwang, a 28-year-old job seeker who lives in southern Michigan. He previously worked for Amazon as an IT support engineer until being laid off last October. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
One morning in October, I got an automated text message from Amazon telling me to check my personal email before clocking in. I saw an email from HR telling me I’d been laid off.
I was very surprised because I believed I was a high performer who had contributed a lot to the organization over my four years there. IT support employees like myself had also generally been spared in previous layoffs, and I felt we were already short-staffed.
Since I’m the breadwinner in my family, I started looking for work right away, focusing on cloud support and IT system engineering roles. The job market has been crazy hard, and I haven’t found a new job yet.
While my final paychecks from Amazon I received through this month have helped cushion the transition, the slow progress in my job search has left me increasingly worried about my finances.
My wife and I have a young son and a mortgage. Our priority now is covering essentials and staying on top of our credit card payments. We’ve started budgeting for a potentially longer period of unemployment and cutting back on eating out and spending on other non-essentials.
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I believe being a remote employee made it harder to progress at Amazon
Getting laid off has made me reflect on my journey at Amazon.
I was born and raised in Michigan, but in 2021, I lived in Seoul, South Korea, and worked for a small tech company. I thought joining a larger corporation would be better for my career, and I landed an IT support engineering role at Amazon’s Seoul office.
After about three years, it seemed like the best way to keep progressing was to move back to the US. In 2024, I transferred to a similar role on a fully remote team, which allowed me to return home to Michigan.
My team has members spread across the globe to ensure round-the-clock support, but that setup didn’t align well with Amazon’s evolving return-to-office policy, which became a five-day-a-week mandate for many employees one year ago. My team wasn’t based near any single location, and my closest office was about an hour’s drive away.
My understanding was that even after the latest RTO mandate took effect, some teams were still allowed to remain remote — a decision their VPs had some influence over. By midway through last year, however, it seemed like there was more top-down pressure to return to the office — pressure even VPs couldn’t push back on.
While I was never required to work from an office, I believe being a remote employee may have made me more vulnerable to layoffs — I heard that a fair number of my remote colleagues, both abroad and in the US, were affected. Amazon said the layoffs were driven by culture, and I think prioritizing in-office employees may have been part of that.
I’m not sure there was much opportunity for advancement for me as a remote employee anyway. I was interested in an engineering role on another team but was told I’d need to relocate to Seattle. Since my wife and I bought a home last year and have strong family roots in Michigan, we’re not open to relocating.
Read more about people who’ve found themselves at a corporate crossroads
The job market has felt like a brick wall
My job hunt has been really challenging so far. I typically spend about five hours a day job hunting during the week and scale back a bit on weekends.
My goal has been to find an engineering role like the kind of position I would’ve struggled to get at Amazon without relocating. I’ve been using my network as much as possible to try to secure referrals, while also applying to jobs cold.
I’ve been targeting remote roles. In Michigan, there are some tech opportunities at large auto companies, but they typically require at least a hybrid schedule, and the pay is often lower than what I earned at Amazon. I’d be open to an in-office role, as long as it meets my compensation expectations, which are roughly a six-figure base salary. I live about 40 minutes from Detroit and would consider roles there if the right opportunity came along.
I received one job offer from a company with a five-day office mandate, but I turned it down. The commute would’ve been an hour each way, and the role came with a fairly strict non-compete agreement that could’ve limited my ability to switch jobs.
It’s been tough to land interviews. The AI-powered applicant tracking systems have been frustratingly difficult to navigate. While my search has been discouraging, I know I can’t afford to slow down, especially as more laid-off workers flood the market and competition increases.
My advice for people who have been laid off
I’m super stressed about my job search and recently applied for unemployment benefits. Since I started job searching in October, I’ve applied to more than 200 roles and had about five interviews. But I haven’t given up.
My best advice for people who have been laid off, including those recently laid off by Amazon, is to lean on your connections. In today’s market, it’s tough without a referral. While it’s important to stay consistent in your job search, I’d also recommend taking some time to rest — apply steadily, not at full throttle.
This is a marathon, not a sprint.
